HMS Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth is the second ship of the Queen Mary-class. Perhaps the most iconic British warship of WW2, Queen Elizabeth served a distinguished service career during her several decades of service. Named after Queen Elizabeth 1 of England, she also shared her name with the 1914 battleship of the same name, sunk by the Graf Spee in 1940. The only RN battleship saved and preserved, she is today berthed at Portsmouth Naval Dockyard adjacent to the HMS Victory. Service History: Commissioned on May 7, 1946, the Queen Elizabeth had no time for a formal shakedown cruise, and her shake down 'cruise' was more of a patrol during the height of the hunt for Tegetthoff. Deployed briefly with the carrier HMS Indomitable, and the battleship HMS Duke of York, the Queen Elizabeth was found to be very reliable, able to maintain a top speed of 30kn. Patrolling the Northern Atlantic ensuring the vital delivery of lend lease supplies to the Soviet Union, and denying the Tegetthoff the ability to make dock in a Norwegian Fjord. Besides some minor action against some german U-Boats, the Queen Elizabeth led a very mundane service life during this hunt. After the sinking of the Tegetthoff by the HMS New Zealand in April 7, 1947, and most of the Kriegsmarine either sunk, or forced into port due to supply shortages or heavy damages, the need for the Queen Elizabeth in the North Atlantic was heavily diminished. Rendezvousing with the American battleship USS Ohio at Scapa Flow, the two ships were to be deployed the Pacific, transiting the Northern Polar Route to get to the Pacific. Pacific Service: After rendezvousing with the USS Ohio in Scapa Flow in early-1947, the two ships to be redeployed to the Pacific where the Imperial Japanese Navy still had significant naval forces. Reaching Midway Island in June, 1947, where the main forward naval base for the combined Naval units was located. Becoming flagship of the Squadron X, compromised of the battleships Queen Elizabeth and HMS Conqueror, fleet carrier HMS Africa, heavy cruisers HMS Valour, and a host of smaller escort ships. Deployed to the South Pacific, as the start of preparations to liberate Singapore as to gain a strategic foothold for a British forward bomber base, that could be built to bomb Japanese held South Pacific Islands, and preform CAS in the Chinese theather. With bombardment of Singapore beaches beginning on July 8, 1947, and lasting until July 10, 1947, the Queen Elizabeth expended over 1/3 of her 18in HE ammunition on shelling the beaches. The subsequent landing and recapturing of Singapore lasted over 3 weeks as British troops inched there way through the Asian city state, finally raising the British flag on the colony on July 27, 1947. Leaving Singapore, the Queen Elizabeth and her task force sailed East, seeking to find and hunt down a rumored small Japanese squadron heading to reinforce the South Japanese Fleet comprised of the battleships IJN Yamato, IJN Kii and IJN Mutsu, The battlecruiser IJN Takamatsu, and the heavy cruisers IJN Zaō and IJN Myōkō. Additionally, a large Japanese fleet carrier force resides here, comprised of the IJN Kuroryu, IJN Zuikaku, & IJN Taihō. Battle of Palau Aircraft from HMS Africa spotted the ships 5km off the coast of Palau, and the engaging the Japanese task force comprised of the battlecruiser IJN Katsuma, and heavy cruiser IJN Sanbe, the Queen Elizabeth and Conqueror opened fire on the ships from a distance of 12,000 yards. With shells reigning down, a shell from the Katsuma struck a secondary 6 Bofor mount above a forward port side secondary mount, killing the entire crew. The Queen Elizabeth’s returning fire struck the bow of the ship, blowing out a part of the thin outer hull of the Katsuma, warping it into the water, exposing the outer rooms of the ship to the elements. A secondary round from Katsuma destroyed Queen Elizabeth’s rear tower, which would collapse and knock out the rear turrets Fire Control system, and become entangled in the Turrets 40mm STAAG AAA emplacement. Using the forward fire control to continue firing the rear turrets, the rear guns nevertheless proved to be relatively useless, being unable to score another hit. However, the forward guns continued to straddle the Katsuma. Another salvo from the Katsuma manage to destoy the Admiral barges and Derrick cranes. Repair parties quickly pushed the burning wreckage of the 4 small boats into the water. Secondary fire from the Queen Elizabeth raked the superstructure of the Katsuma- while not destroying the conning itself, would nevertheless disable much of the upper communications sweet. A Main battery shell from the Conqueror managed to pierce the Katsuma’s B turret barbette, but failed to detonate, no doubt saving the ship, but jamming the turret in place. A following round from HMS Valour detonated inside the radar and plotting room, killing most of the Katsuma's radio operators in the process. An electrical fire broke out, and disabled much of Katsuma's internal communication, severely hampering the damage control parties from reaching areas that needed attention. Another shell from the HMS Conqueror struck the Katsuma amidship, detonating deep inside the port side engine room. A fire broke out, and the engine room had to be flooded. Losing one of her engines, Katsuma's speed dropped to 17kn, while her list continued to increase to 8 degrees to Port. By this time, strike aircraft from the Kuroryu and Zuikaku arrived. Unknown the British, the main Japanese Strike Force laid 100 miles south of their position. The Taiho was temporarily out of commision. The previous day, Taihō had suffered a broken arresting wire during the landing of a Ki-83 Heavy Fighter, causing it to crash and catch fire, damaging the flight deck. With heavy fighter support from the Africa, the Africa's fighters were still unable to effectively ward off the Japanese aircraft. Several D6Y dive bombers from the Kuroryu managed to make a successful pass at the HMS Valor. The large AP bomb struck the HMS Valor's forward quad turret, destroying it. A fire broke out, but the magazine was flooded to prevent a catastrophic explosion. Meanwhile, a mass of Torpedo bombers from the Kuroryu make a drop on the HMS Conqueror- while Japanese lost 5 aircraft, 8 planes still managed to drop their torpedos. While undergoing maneuvers, Conqueror was still hit by 3 torpedos. 2 of the torpedos, while striking the torpedo bulge, managed to cause massive flooding in the center of the ship. The third turret struck forward of the torpedo bulge along the bow of the ship. The explosion ripped a hole so large, that her bow would later tear itself free. However, with the Conqueror and Queen Elizabeth still in fighting condition, first mate of the Katsuma, Kirishima Maeda finally gave the order to abandon ship. By this time the Katsuma was effectively reduced to a single firing turret (the rear turret was unable to traverse any farther forward to aim at the British). As the Katsuma's evacuation commenced, the captain of the Sanbe attempted a daring rescue mission, pulling alongside the sinking Katsuma, and helping take on survivors. Still firing on the British, a 8in shell from the Sanbe struck the Queen Elizabeth’s forward superstructure detonating inside the Petty Officers Reading Room, but otherwise doing no damage. Some spalling from the attack did injure several crew on deck, but otherwise was non fatal. By this time, the Queen Elizabeth was the only ship in condition to pursue the Japanese. The Conqueror's speed had decreased to 13kn, and the Valor was critically damaged. With little AAA support from the other ships, and with Africa's fighters being forced to refuel, a dive bomber group from the IJN Zuikaku, comprised of the older D5Y Dive Bomber, attacked the Queen Elizabeth. While taking heavy losses due to lack of fighter support, several managed to break through and bomb the QE. A single dive bomber, taking heavy damage from AAA sheared the vertical stabilizers after entering the dive, and unable to pull up, the bomber crashed straight into the Queen Elizabeth’s superstructure, demolishing much of it, and killing many top advisors. While the Conning tower survived the impact, crash forced Captain Peter Powers and Rear Admiral James Conley to retreat to the Operations Room in the center of the ship. The explosion and wreckage destroyed both 6 gun Bofor AA mounts just forward of the superstructure, jammed the B turret, and lost the remaining Range finder. With little operational AAA mounts left, the decision was made for the ships to withdraw from combat. While the attack was not kamikaze, it damage inflicted eventually led to creation of Kamikaze Attack Squadrons. Subsequent air attacks from the HMS Africa would sink the Katsuma, and the Sanbe would be crippled to the point where she’d have to be scuttled by destroyer gunfire. The HMS Valour would be taken under tow, but would be scuttled the next day by torpedo fire from an accompanying destroyer. The HMS Conqueor would lose her bow the next day as well, after the hydrodynamics essentially ripped it off the ship. Temporarily losing 2 Battleships to such severe damage, British Pacific Fleet Command temporarily limited British fleet movements, meaning no British battleships would be present during the subsequent Battle of Bismarck Sea. The Queen Elizabeth would arrive in Pearl Harbor on August 6, 1947 under her own power. Lacking sufficient Dry Dock space, Conqueror would make temporary repairs, before sailing for San Francisco to make permanent repairs. Work on repairing Queen Elizabeth was given top priority due her status as the British’s Flagship in the region, and the fourth allied ship in the theater armed with 18in Guns. (Others being USS Michigan, HMS Queen Victoria, and HMS Prince Royal). Battle of the North Mariana Islands Refueling at Midway, the Queen Elizabeth would be the flagship of a British fleet comprised of the carriers HMS Thunderchild, HMS Audacious, the battleship HMS Temeraire, Battlecruisers HMS Resolve, HMS Hood, heavy cruisers HMS Royal James, HMS Edinburgh, and light cruisers HMS Minotaur, HMS Penelope, and HMS Cutlass. The British fleet was deployed to act as a Northern Vanguard for the main allied invasion fleet, deployed 15nm northwest of the coast of Saipan. The Japanese fleet operating in defense of the invasion was made up of 3 taskforces. The Main taskforce, under the flagship of IJN Shinano, was composed of 4 carriers, the IJN Yonaga, IJN Zuiryū, IJN Ikoma, IJN Suirō, and IJN Hiryū. This was escorted by the Battleship IJN Shinano, IJN Aki, IJN Haruna, battlecruisers IJN Echizen, and IJN Nantai. A secondary Carrier fleet, composed of the antiquated IJN Suō, IJN Sōryū, and battleships IJN Satsuma and IJN Mutsu, and battlecruiser IJN Amagi were to act as a southern vanguard, south of Guam. Sailing south of Saipan towards Guam, she shelled the main airfield on Saipan, and on Japanese garrisons along the coast. Unfortunately for the British, the American screening force had been lured away to chase after the secondary but less strategically important carrier fleet. After a scout aircraft from the IJN Thunderchild spotted the IJN Yonaga. Horribly outnumbered and outgunned, with no support, the British turned to engage the encroaching Japanese Fleet. Opening fire on the Shinano from her Max range of 20,000 yards, the splashes took the Japanese off guard. The British forces had somehow been overlooked by Japanese Command, and after the successful diversion that lured the American screening force away, Yonaga had been prepared to launch strikes against the landing forces, not prepared for Naval combat. As such, her flight operations quickly gave the order for her aircraft to rearm for naval combat, but this would mean she would only have fighter support, as opposed to a retailitory strike force. However, believing the aggressors to be Americans, Admiral Furashita ordered the Dive bombers to be equipped with 500lb bombs instead of the heavier 1000lb necessary to penetrate the ships 4 in armored deck. The Queen Elizabeth continued to push after the Japanese battleships with the Temeraire, which had turned to engage the British Battleship. Outgunned, the two Brits fearlessly opened fire on the Japanese flagship. By this time, strike aircraft began launching from the decks of the Thunderchild and Audacious. Like her half sisters Yamato and Musashi, Shinano shared the critical flaw of having a blind spot in her AAA defenses, which by this time was well known to American aviators. However, to the British naval aviators who had recently transferred from the Atlantic, this information was not known. As such, on the initial torpedo run against Shinano resulted in heavy losses, losing some 14 aircraft. However, 3 torpedo bombers managed to successfully drop on the Shinano, with all 3 making a direct impact on her port side. Refusing to continue to sacrifice torpedo bombers against a seemingly impenetrable AAA field, the decision was made to launch higher altitude heavy fighters to make conventional non diving bombing runs against the battleship, to try and damage AAA mounts. By this time, the Queen Elizabeth had closed to 12,000 yards, and her first round struck the Shinano just aft of the rear most turret, putting a 15m hole in her deck. As strike aircraft from Ikoma arrived over the British fleet, HMS Temeraire has started to engage from 15,000 and had started to strattle the Haruna. Wanting to prevent another launch of aircraft, the Ikoma‘ said aircraft attacked the HMS Audacious. Japanese Dive bomber pilots, primarily used to the unarmored American flight decks, watched in amazement as their 500lb bombs detonated (relatively) harmlessly off the armored deck of the Audacious. Reporting back to Rear Admiral Furashita that that the bombs had done nothing, the order was once again given to rearm the dive bombers on Zuikaku and Yonaga with the 1000lb bombs intended for battleships. However, torpedo bombers were given the go ahead to launch. With only a small fighter accompaniment, of antiquated AGM-7 fighters from the Zuikaku (which had yet to receive new AGM-8s), the torpedo squadrons took heavy losses from British AAA and fighters. Wanting to put at least one of the British carriers out of action, the bombers attacked Thunderchild. However, on final approach, one of the dive bombers had the launch mechanism jam, and had its pilot severely injured by AAA gunfire. Thunderchild would take 2 torpedo strikes to her port side. Notified by one of his surviving squad mates of having a Long Lance Torpedo still strapped underneath, the pilot circled up, and seeing the Thunderchild’s aft elevator dropping down (to bring up the now rearmed dive bombers), he circled back around, and diving along the length of the the ship. His squadron mates recalled seeing a perfect attack angle before the plane sharply dived, and its commonly believed that this is when ___ collapsed at that controls. While he struck short of the actual opening, the torpedo pieced the thinner 1in flight deck aft of the elevator, and penetrated into the hanger. A massive explosion ripped throughout the Thunderchild, as a chain explosion set off other explosions. The detonation of the torpedos massive warhead inside the hanger caused the flight deck to buckle upwards nearly a foot from its original position. With nearly all fire sprayers in the hangar destroyed, along with a large amount of crew dead or injured, the ship made a sharp turn away from the wind, attempting to prevent the flames from spreading. With Thunderchild severely crippled, aircraft already launched from the Thunderchild and Audacious continued to press home their attack on Ikoma. The strike would manage to land 4 torpedos along Ikoma’s starboard side, with 5 direct 750lb bomb hits, and 3 near misses. Effectively putting Ikoma out of the fight as well. However, one torpedo that had missed the Ikoma’s bow continued and struck the Yonaga’s fantail, destroying the rudders. HMS Queen Elizabeth had continued to press towards the battleships. By this time Shinano had been lit on fire from an explosion of one of her heavy AAA mounts. In a last ditch effort, dive bombers, armed with 1000lb bombs launched from Zuikaku and Yonaga. With many of the British fighters being forced to land for fuel, the dive bombers struck the Audacious with precision, landing 5 direct hits with 1000lb bombs. With no carriers able to provide defense (and with over a dozen fighters still in the air), the British fleet quickly turned to disengage. Hearing of heavy losses of many of the ships from the north divisionary fleet, Admiral Furashita decided to retreat, fearing an overwhelming allied counterattack, and loss of more ships. Up to this point, Japan had been fighting a losing war against the allies from a territorial aspect, but had been destroying an unsustainable amount of ships. However, with the loss of Guam and Saipan, the US finally had a forward operating base capable of bombing mainland Japan. The Southern British fleet was heralded for saving the invasion forces, and leading to the successful capture of the Northern Mariana Islands. However, the British had once again taken a horrible tole. The Queen Elizabeth was only lightly damaged in the skirmish. Temeraire had taken an 18in shell to the faceplate of her “B” Turret, which warped all 3 barrels to the point of being useless. The HMS Resolve, while escorting the Thunderchild back to port for repairs, would be struck by 2 large torpedos, and unable to control the flooding, would sink. While the Thunderchild would manage to be saved, and be repaired in Pearl Harbor, Audacious’s crew was unable to stop the flooding, and with water from the fire fight going deeper into the ship, caused a 15 degree list to Port. Clear the ship could not be saved, she would be abandoned, and 4 hours later would roll over and quickly sink. This was a crippling defeat for the IJN, as they loss the Ikoma, on top of the heavy losses from the northern fleet. However, the allies had suffered even heavier losses. The northern American fleet had loss 1 US carrier, and 3 battleships (USS Alabama, ), and manages to loss none of the main battle fleet The British loss Audacious, which was their largest and newest carrier in the theather at that time, and led to much heavier AA forces being armed on British Carriers. Category:Royal Navy Category:Battleship